Unusual galaxy set to prompt rethink on how structures in the Universe form

Astronomers have captured an image of a super-rare type of galaxy – described as a “cosmic ring of fire” – as it existed 11 billion years ago.

The galaxy, which has roughly the mass of the Milky Way, is circular with a hole in the middle, rather like a titanic doughnut. Its discovery, announced in the journalNature Astronomy, is set to shake up theories about the earliest formation of galactic structures and how they evolve.

Galaxies
grow large by eating their smaller neighbours, new research reveals.

Exactly
how massive galaxies attain their size is poorly understood, not least because
they swell over billions of years. But now a combination of observation and
modelling from researchers led by Dr Anshu Gupta from Australia’s ARC Centre of
Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) has provided a
vital clue.

Professor Lisa Kewley, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics (ASTRO 3D), in front of Australia’s Reynolds telescope, which dates from 1927. Credit: ASTRO 3D

Ensuring research opportunities for indigenous, disabled and LGBTQ astronomers is essential if Australian research is to succeed in the new era of “mega-telescopes”, a major analysis has found.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, Professor Lisa Kewley, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics (ASTRO 3D), finds that encouraging astronomers from marginalised communities will increase the chances of significant research discoveries.

“Studies show that increased diversity up to the
highest levels of organisations, and effective diversity management, leads to
organisations outperforming their competition in innovation, productivity and
profit because more ideas are produced,” she says.

Data gathered by NASA’s now defunct Kepler telescope provides a solution to an astronomical mystery.

An artist impression of the Milky Way, showing the thick and thin discs.Credit: NASA/JPL Caltech/R.Hurt/SSC

Star-quakes recorded by NASA’s Kepler space telescope have
helped answer a long-standing question about the age of the “thick disc” of the
Milky Way.

In a paper published in the
journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
a team of 38 scientists led by researchers from Australia’s ARC Centre of
Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in Three Dimensions (ASTRO-3D) use data
from the now-defunct probe to calculate that the disc is about 10 billion years
old.

Sky survey provides clues to how they change over time.

A simulation showing a section of the Universe at its broadest scale. A web of cosmic filaments forms a lattice of matter, enclosing vast voids. Credit: Tiamat simulation, Greg Poole

The direction in which a galaxy spins depends on its mass, researchers have found.

A team of astrophysicists analysed 1418 galaxies and found that small ones are likely to spin on a different axis to large ones. The rotation was measured in relation to each galaxy’s closest “cosmic filament” – the largest structures in the universe.

Filaments are massive thread-like formations, comprising huge amounts of matter – including galaxies, gas and, modelling implies, dark matter. They can be 500 million light years long but just 20 million light years wide. At their largest scale, the filaments divide the universe into a vast gravitationally linked lattice interspersed with enormous dark matter voids.

Researchers hunt for a 12-billion-year-old signal that marks the end of the post Big Bang “dark age”.

In this image of the Epoch of Reionisation, neutral hydrogen, in red, is gradually ionizsed by the first stars, shown in white.Credit: Paul Geil and Simon Mutch

Astronomers
are closing in on a signal that has been travelling
across the Universe for 12 billion years, bringing them nearer to understanding
the life and death of the very earliest stars.

In a
paper on the preprint site arXiv and
soon to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, a team led by Dr Nichole Barry from Australia’s University of Melbourne and
the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO
3D) reports a 10-fold improvement on data gathered by the Murchison Widefield
Array (MWA) – a collection of 4096 dipole antennas
set in the remote hinterland of Western Australia.

Australian-led astronomers find the most iron-poor star in the Galaxy, hinting at the nature of the first stars in the Universe.

A visualisation of the formation of the first stars. Credit: Wise, Abel, Kaehler (KIPAC/SLAC)

A newly discovered ancient star containing a record-low amount of iron carries evidence of a class of even older stars, long hypothesised but assumed to have vanished.

In a paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, researchers led by Dr Thomas
Nordlander of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3
Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) confirm the existence of an ultra-metal-poor red
giant star, located in the halo of the Milky Way, on the other side of the
Galaxy about 35,000 light-years from Earth.

Sarah is an excellent communicator. I usually find it difficult to engage in a full day's course, but I did not feel that way at this course.

Anonymous - Sydney Jan 2020

2020-01-28T14:37:41+11:00

Anonymous - Sydney Jan 2020

Sarah is an excellent communicator. I usually find it difficult to engage in a full day's course, but I did not feel that way at this course.

https://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/testimonials/24338

Really liked the way you trained everyone on their field to help them on their research and how they can maximise it.

Anonymous - Sydney Jan 2020

2020-01-28T14:48:26+11:00

Anonymous - Sydney Jan 2020

Really liked the way you trained everyone on their field to help them on their research and how they can maximise it.

https://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/testimonials/24339

I think we should receive this kind of training since graduate studies.

Anonymous - Sydney Jan 2020

2020-01-28T14:55:33+11:00

Anonymous - Sydney Jan 2020

I think we should receive this kind of training since graduate studies.

https://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/testimonials/24341

Well presented & great format

Anonymous - Sydney Jan 2020

2020-01-28T15:03:20+11:00

Anonymous - Sydney Jan 2020

Well presented & great format

https://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/testimonials/24342

Sarah's structure of the course, specific insight and understanding of science, her contacts and common mistakes made in communication were great and furthered my skills in this area.

Anonymous - Sydney Jan 2020

2020-01-28T15:04:28+11:00

Anonymous - Sydney Jan 2020

Sarah's structure of the course, specific insight and understanding of science, her contacts and common mistakes made in communication were great and furthered my skills in this area.

https://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/testimonials/24343

This is one of the best science communication courses I have ever encountered. It teaches all research to think out of box and really simplify their research in lay man's language. I will highly recommend this to anyone looking to learn more about science communication.

Shwathy Ramesh

2020-02-24T09:29:55+11:00

Shwathy Ramesh

This is one of the best science communication courses I have ever encountered. It teaches all research to think out of box and really simplify their research in lay man's language. I will highly recommend this to anyone looking to learn more about science communication.